Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic Continues Unabated

The American ship of state is inexorably steaming toward the iceberg of economic collapse. And while the ship of fools moves forward, America arranges the deck chairs on its version of the Titanic. News broadcasters are giddy with excitement while discussing the election outcomes. This gives them untold numbers of news stories as the balance of power in DC shifts yet again.

Americans are, for the most part…infants and toddlers that chase after the newest shiny object that arrests their fleeting attention. Asking most Americans to concentrate on bedrock issues like taxation, regulation and tyranny is asking far too much of them. Most Americans are stupid (a mental outlook that affirms the crude and vulgar, while eschewing the noble and virtuous) and credulous (a readiness or willingness to believe, especially on slight or uncertain evidence).

The stupidity and credulity of Americans make them easily led and swayed by news stories so ridiculous that they should be an embarrassment. Stupidity’s best recent examples are any stories related to Lindsey Lohan, Dancing with the Stars, or American Idol. Credulity’s finest example of all time is what occurred on September 11, 2011.

Permit me to make some observations about new stories that have floated to the surface of the national toilet bowl that is the media.

1. “Quantitative Easing.” Bernanke of the Federal Reserve likely came up with this meaningless phrase, intended only to deceive. What is actually happening is counterfeiting on the grandest scale in the history of the world. The Federal Reserve is becoming the buyer of last resort of US Treasury debt instruments. Benny and his bunch are printing $600 billion in new paper money and spewing it out into the world. Those nations around the world who (a) own American debt, or (b) are tied to the dollar are pissed. Which means pretty much every other nation of the planet is getting screwed by Washington, as well as American citizens.

What will happen when the nations of the world finally refuse to buy more US bonds? Two choices emerge for DC: (a) print up more paper currency to monetize the debt through the Fed. (b) bankruptcy. Which do you think will happen…realistically?

2. China announces manufacture of commercial airliners. China sees the market domination of Boeing and Airbus, and won’t be held hostage by either to serve their rapidly growing air travel market. So Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) is building the C919 passenger jet, scheduled to enter the market in 2015.

Aeronautics is one of the last major manufacturing sectors left for American exports. Now that export sector is being directly threatened by Chinese competition. But China is making these moves to serve its own internal needs. Airbus did a study showing that air traffic doubled in China in the last decade, and will double again in the next decade. They predicted that China will need another 80 airports, bringing their total to 240. And it’s estimated that they will need 5,000 planes to handle just domestic traffic. And don’t think that the Chinese planes will be lower quality. They will certainly rival or exceed present competitor’s products. Aren’t American computers already being produced in China? So, expect massive layoffs in the aeronautics industries in America as China proves it doesn’t need American or European planes.

3. And speaking of commercial air travel…America is up in arms over the aggressive body search tactics currently done by the Transportation Safety Administration’s airport “security” thugs. Some are calling these searches criminal sexual assault and sexual battery. But your alternative to these body searches is to go through the X-ray body scanners. No one knows the long-term health risks associated with the new scanners, and you can be sure that the Federal Government will take no responsibility if the scanners are found to be hazardous.

Remember what air travel was like prior to 9-11? You showed up at the airport and checked your luggage at the front desk…if you had luggage. Then you went to the gate where you boarded the plane. There were no scanners…no TSA enforcers…no metal detectors and wands.

Now remember back about two years. You showed up at the airport at least two hours before the flight so you could take off your shoes, remove all metallic objects from your person, walk through a metal detector, get wanded if you set off the metal detector, and then go to your gate. This procedure, while invasive and completely unnecessary, worked just fine right up until someone invented the body scanning machines and sold them to Homeland Security. Did some major breach of security occur in the USA that called for this level of invasion? NO!! But curiously, now that hundreds of these radiation body scanners are in use, searches bordering on sexual assault are the necessary alternative to allowing TSA to look at your body under your clothing.

You should also be aware that in the entire history of Homeland Security and the TSA, the TSA has never ONCE prevented a terrorist act through the airport screening process. Sure, they prevent literally tons of private property…like shampoo bottles and nail clippers from being carried on aircraft. But that is simply the confiscation of items that the TSA has banned from domestic flights. Meanwhile, every search…every scan…violates your 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

There is a substantive difference between a “pat-down” search and the TSA searches. Police officers I’ve spoken to tell me that they do “pat-down” searches as a matter of course. But the searches presently being done by the TSA are known by police as a “custody search.” And a custody search cannot be done by police unless (1) they have probable cause, and (2) you’re already under arrest, and (3) you’re going to jail. The TSA has no probable cause except the presumption of guilt for all travelers…and that doesn’t pass the test.

Americans nationwide are incensed by the tyranny shown by the TSA and Homeland Security. And they should be. But how about some perspective here? Most people don’t fly even once a year. But every person is affected 24/7 by the taxation and regulation oozing across the American landscape. Where is the outrage? Where is the proportionate response to having 50% of your income stolen from you at the point of a gun?

4. President Obama’s hand-picked National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is in disarray. The leaders floated some ideas on how to deal with Federal spending. But even the members of the committee cannot agree on spending cuts. There is no possible way that Congress will EVER cut the Federal government’s budgets in a way that each of us individuals or families have to make cuts when money’s short. So, the “bus of state” is hurtling toward the cliffs overlooking “Debt Canyon” with no brakes, so to speak. And, on its way to the edge of the cliff, it has to pass over train tracks, and there is an inflation train speeding toward the crossing. If the train doesn’t hit and destroy the bus, the bus will run off the cliff and be destroyed at the bottom of the canyon.

There is no third option available to the United States of America.

But, let me offer an idea for your consideration. That idea is repudiating our national debt.

Much of the national debt is America owing America. For example, the Social Security “fund” has no money in it. It only contains other debt instruments like Treasury securities. So if our national left pocket owes money to our national right pocket, how about we call it even and just write off ALL the debt? I’m not suggesting that private holders and other nations that hold American debt should get shafted. I’m just talking about our own bookkeeping here in DC.

But in a real sense, the other nations of the world will eventually get the American shaft. Inflation will consume the dollar soon like burning leaves in autumn. The dollar cannot continue as the world reserve currency, and a new reserve currency is on the horizon. I posit that it will be the Chinese Yuan.

If we cannot fix our own national government, it will surely and eventually be destroyed…either from without or from within.

This article today is written to give you a little more evidence that state secession is the only hope for liberty on the North American continent. At some future point, the American economy will collapse. Out of that catastrophe, a few states will muster the courage to secede and try to rebuild a new civilization.

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I’d like to discuss what is knowable by the general public about how much money is “created” to grease the wheels of commerce. When I was in grammar school in the 50’s I recall reading that that amount of money was tied to our GNP, now called Gross Domestic Product. Money is a vehicle to ease and facilitate commerce as well as to allow us to maintain law and order and armed forces for our defense and national interests. But things are more complex with much of our commerce being for bizarre products like derivitives, and insurance on rediculous things like other peoples venture’s success or failure. Anyone foolish enough to invest in stupid stuff should lose out IMHO.

I think a large part of the ignorance of saying Quantative easing isn’t a good thing is that you don’t understand one basic fact. As long as people are willing to work, we will be ok… IF our government has the forsight to provide a requisite amount of capital to allow that to happen and make our system work. Not too much, and not too little. If we have inflation, it would call for higher taxation.

Imagine opening a monopoly game with the amount of money given in a standard game for however many people start to play, then those people having children, and their children having children, and some immigrants coming into the game, you’d run out of money. You must print more or it won’t work. More people=More need for capital!

It’s natural that those with tons of money feel ok about others losing their homes, so they can make some killer purchases and feel superior and they put a lot of pressure on our government to ignore the needs of commerce, but its a more miserable existence in my opinion and people will eventually revolt and make life very unpleasant.

Dear Miss Mona- Your misunderstanding of monetary policy and the definition of money in general is breathtaking. Where in God’s name were you educated about money and government monetary policy…a public school or university economics class? That is the only answer I could imagine to be true.

Gold and silver are money. Money is a medium of exchange. Paper currency is not money.

“As long as people are willing to work, we will be ok?” Completely wrong. Governments do not provide capital. Inflation is only…and has ALWAYS ONLY BEEN…created by government. It is a product of government issuing more paper currency than the value of the money it represents. Your Monopoly analogy is heartbreakingly sad, as it shows that the government’s propaganda has become your underlying belief. Governments do not create capital. Capital invested creates wealth, which creates more capital. And wealth and capital are created by human labor.

I urge you to begin a study of money TODAY. The longer you continue in your present lack of understanding, the more you will be susceptible to more government lies. Start with Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson.”

Thank you for visiting DumpDC, and thanks for taking the time to write.

Thanks Russ, I am now looking for an audio copy of that book, and let me say that I’ve been thinking and studying the money situation for a few years now. Books such as THE ASCENT OF MONEY, and EAT THE RICH, and videos THEY MONEY MASTERS and MONEY AS DEBT have given me some different viewpoints and eye opening facts, have you “studied” any of those? If so do you have some opinions on any if so.

The thing about using stuff like precious metals as a tidy package for trading energy and products is its insane to be ripping our planet apart in search of more more more. The whole process produces toxic waste and energy losses, and I think its the wrong supposition to base “money” on something like that.

Mona- printing paper currency in excess of the underlying money value is counterfeiting and it is fraud. Fractional reserve banking, which creates money from nothing, is another method of counterfeiting, and is also fraud. Just because both are widely accepted doesn’t change them into non-fraud. A is A. A is not non-A. It’s hilarious that you consider mining as “ripping apart our planet” when you are surrounded on every side by goods that could only be produced by mining…like steel, aluminum, plastic, oil and gas, copper…and gold. You typed your email to me on a computer made of metal and plastic…mined from the earth. Finally, it matters not what you think about gold as money. It does not change the incontrovertible fact that precious metals have been money for thousands of years. I’m glad you’re coming here to DumpDC, because if you’ll read these posts and read the Archives, you’ll be able to cast off your mistaken beliefs.

What would you call it if a stranger did what TSA agents do, to your child while on the playground? Soon, there will be a suite next to the scanner where flexible sigmoidoscopies and pap smears can be performed.

Anyone that doesnt understand the economic principles of money or what Dumpdc was talking in general should buy Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman. Its 202 pages and I think I spent 8 bucks. It will explain all about the money and economics plus a bit more that you would find suprising. Another plus is he writes it simply enough that even if you dont know much or anything you will still understand.

And another thing as far as the searches go… Nothing is either good or bad, only thinking makes it so.
We get over our doctors proddings and pokings because its considered necessary. We can handle this too.

I think we should do more PR and education for our would be enemies. As long as these men think a jihad thing is the only path to the 70 mansions with their virgins waiting, we’re not likely to stop their terrorism.

They are searching american citizens without probable cause or a warrant Mona. The government would rather take away the rights of its citizens instead of racial profiling which would be more effective if they were really worried about national security.
Secondly you should check out a few books by subject experts on terrorism/suicide bombers. The reason it is so easy for them to get volunteers is because we have troops stationed in many Middle East countries which they feel infringes on their freedom which technically it does. A slightly out of date list is the only one I could find but here it is Bahrain, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Djibouti, United Arabic Emirates, Oman, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Its called blowback and here is a explanation of it.

History teaches that foreign military bases are a double-edged sword. The most obvious indication of the truth of this proposition is the present “War on Terrorism.” There can be little doubt that attacks over the last decade or more directed against both U.S. forces abroad and targets in the United States itself have been a response in large part to the growing U.S. role as a foreign military power in regions such as the Middle East, where the United States has not only engaged in military actions, even full-scale war, but also since 1990 has stationed thousands of troops. The establishment of U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia was regarded by some Saudis as an occupation of the holiest land of Islam(add Iraq to this, its a has major holy sites also), to be repelled at virtually any cost.

The perception of U.S. military bases as intrusions on national sovereignty is widespread in “host” countries for the simple reason that the presence of such bases inevitably translates into interference in domestic politics. As the 1970 report by the Subcommittee on Security Agreements and Commitments Abroad of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee noted: “Overseas bases, the presence of elements of United States armed forces, joint planning, joint exercises, or excessive military assistance programs…all but guarantee some involvement by the United States in the internal affairs of the host government” (p. 20). Such countries become more and more enmeshed in the U.S. empire.

We are interfering with their political and religious freedom. If another country did the same in the U.S. I would fight back also minus the suicide bombing of course.

Rather than swallowing whatever the media tells you then spitting it back up on this site take the time to educate yourself please.

I basically agree with what Zachary is saying about our presence in the foreign countries, and the situation evolved because we’ve allowed ourselves to become addicted to oil and an addict is never without a supply… That is the crux of this problem.

THE ARAB MIND is a great book on explaining the culture of the arabs…
It will be nice when we can help educate each other without disparaging remarks.

Has anyone here seen the video THE MONEY MASTERS? Its freee and very insightful, and I don’t know about you but I prefer video to reading. It would be nice if we could get on the same page, because I think we may be closer than further apart.

I apologize Mona. I regretted it shortly after I posted it but its so frustrating when a lot or even a majority of people do not realize that the media is not neutral/unbiased anymore. Most of them are for one side or another. They no longer feel the need to educate american citizens with the facts of what is going on and then inviting experts on to argue both sides. Which would allow people to come to their own conclusion after thinking over what they have heard. It is sad how far the media has fallen from where it was in years past. People do not realize that though and take what they hear as gospel. I am glad you are thinking for yourself and reading up on the issues. Its a sharp learning curve I know, I started myself a couple of months ago and spend several hours a day keeping myself updated on current events on-line and educating myself by books. Some good authors if you have the time, Milton Friedman, Ludwig Von Mises, F.A. Hayek, all 3 are great for economics/politics. A great current day author in my opinion is Ron Paul. To keep updated on current events check out Ron Pauls website. They are kind of sarcastic which is understandable these days but Gary North and Ann Coulter write good articles about what is going on in my opinion at least. Good luck and keep abreast of everything.

Gold is not magic but it is held, through tradition, to represent real value. It cannot be printed on a whim. Gold-based currencies have a good history of stability. Should the US – and Europe – re-adopt the barbaric relic? Of course not! Create a value-backed digital currency that cannot be counterfeited (using encryption technology) and doesn’t randomly distribute wealth according to geological accident.

Printing money serves one purpose and one only: it taxes the citizens via inflation. If the printed money is spent wisely it might stimulate the economy enough for people not to notice the inflation. It may even be possible to destroy the money and reverse it. Net result: ordinary citizens are forced to subsidize profit-making businesses in order to create an economic recovery.

Finally – the national debt may indeed be owed largely to ourselves: a good proportion is owed to domestic investors, “owed” in the sense that they have bought government bonds which the government buys back at cost price after 15-odd years. “Liability” would be a better word than “debt”. Printing money aside, this buy-back and all the interest paid during the life of the bond comes from taxes. We may sympathise with people who are struggling to survive on a small pension: printing money to inflate their savings and pensions away is not very nice. However, on average, all this debt results in a steady, astronomical, flow of taxes from everyone into the hands of those who have been able to afford to invest.

How does any of this inspire confidence in our fiat currencies? You are 100% right DC, this basic knowledge is suppressed – in school and in the media. And who can be surprised: most of the money in circulation belongs to the blood-sucking financial system, they have a vested interest in keeping the cattle in the dark. But the internet will be their undoing – it’s a small proportion who want “real money” but it’s growing fast because interent information flows freely. Sometimes too freely – economics attracts more than its fair share of conspiracy-theorists. But to my mind, the simple truth is far worse than anything anyone could consciously dream up. the right to print 97% of money into existence and loan it out, given to private banks, and the right to print the remaining 3% and simply spend it granted to central banks??? Nobody could have come up with that: it has to have grown up, alongside keeping the public “stupid”

US and Europe could never re-adopt the gold standard, since that would tell the populations of the nations that they have been robbed over time. Also there is no “value-based currency” that cannot be counterfeited. And what “value” do you recommend over precious metals?
The only currency that should enjoy confidence is a currency backed by precious metals.

I am not a fan of gold-based currency. Gold retains its value largely because of a persistent superstion that it has intrinsic value. In reality it’s only useful for making trinkets.

IMNSHO we are just as “stupid” about gold as we are about the dollar 🙂 However, I suspect that, globally, mankind will cling to its stupid superstition about gold than it will to its stupid confidence in the dollar.

As the man says “We’re all freakin’ doomed!”.

I assure you that digital currency cannot be counterfeited – however, a new currency would suffers from the same problems as gold and the dollar when the confidence and superstition respectively dissipate. It needs to acquire real value so it can then find its own level on the market. As far as I can see, short of sneaking it into circulation so people “stupidly” accept it without question, the only way to give it value is to make it represent assets bought by the issuing party – like the gold standard only not limited to one commodity. This avoids being tied to any basket of commodities: let the market decide what your money is worth.

Well, Rothbard doesn’t consider digital currency and in the absence of such a thing, gold as the value makes sense despite the obvious disadvantages.

However the point here is no so much to design a new perfect currency as to help people realize – surely? – that they have been misled and kept in the dark about the financial system they are born and bred to feed?

Most people I meet think economics is a total mystery. Which is bound to be so as long as banks and governments don’t have to balance the books. Ironic, is it not, that the complexity of a system that does not obey arithmetic is the very thing that keeps “stupid” people from questioning it?!